Effects to Control Volcanoes
Vulcan's Warning Bell is an enchanted item that is intended to give the covenant due warning that the volcano is about to erupt. In most circumstances, the warning is sufficient to allow either the covenant to be evacuated, or (perhaps more usefully) the Scorn of Aphrodite's Tears ritual can be cast, which suppresses the imminent eruption. The Flame Tongue spell can be used to direct a belch of hot lava at an individual, which can be used as a weapon to discourage invaders. Creeping Earth makes the earth rise over the course of a month, seriously damaging buildings.
Creeping Earth
ReTe 25
R: Touch, D: Moon, T: Part
The caster of this spell stamps his foot on the ground and a patch of earth, centered on his position and 35 paces across, slowly but inexorably rises up for the duration of the spell. The earth rises at a rate of about one inch per day (up to three feet over the spell duration).
This is fast enough for people to observe if they watch the earth for more than a Diameter, and the movement can destroy buildings and other structures — even the strongest castle walls run the risk of collapse.
This spell only works when cast within a league of a volcano (three miles). This is because this movement is only a slightly unnatural property of the earth in such regions, whereas it is a grossly unnatural property of earth elsewhere.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +3 Moon, +1 Part, +2 Size)
Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (50), Two Seasons (38), Three Seasons (34), Four Seasons (32).
Flame Tongue
ReAq(Ig) 25
R: Voice, D: Momentary, T: Part
This spell causes a glutinous glob of lava (from a lake or river of magma) to leap out and hit something. The volume of lava moved is about 2 cubic feet, and it can be moved to hit any location within Voice range. Whatever the lava hits takes between +15 and +60 damage, depend-
The heat of the lava is also sufficient to ignite anything flammable that it hits.
Flame Tongue is an Aimed spell, with a +6 bonus to hit due to the size of the volume of lava.
If the caster tries to totally immerse a person with the lava projectile, there is a –6 penalty to the Aiming Roll (effectively canceling the +6 size bonus). There is no penalty to the Aiming Roll if the objective is to merely splash someone. In some circumstances, the storyguide may decide that a missed attack to immerse a character results in a splash.
(Base 10, +2 Voice, +1 Size)
Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (50), Two Seasons (38), Three Seasons (34), Four Seasons (32).
Scorn of Aphrodite's Tears
ReTe(Ig) 70
R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, Ritual
This ritual is cast when the eruption of a volcano is imminent, and it climaxes with a vial of pure water being poured into the crater mouth. The ritual prevents the volcano from erupting.
The volcano region can be up to 20 miles in diameter (although the crater will be only a fraction of this size), and the peak can be up to 15,000 feet high.
(Base 3, +1 Touch, +13 Size, +1 affect a volcano (equivalent to affecting stone))
Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (140), Two Seasons (105), Three Seasons (94), Four Seasons (88).
Vulcan's Warning Bell
This enchanted bell is suspended in the vapors escaping from a volcanic crater. It detects when the volcano is preparing to erupt. Normally, the bell gives a
number of days warning equal to 1 stress die. If a 0 is rolled on the stress die, then the number on the botch die represents the number of hours warning. If the botch die is itself a 0 (i.e., a botch), then there is no warning. The variable warning is a feature of the eruption, not the bell; Hermetic magic cannot predict the future directly, so the item must rely on advance signs of the eruption, and they appear at varying times.
Note that if the volcano unexpectedly erupts due to a supernatural effect, there may be considerably less warning.
There are two effects involved — one to detect the imminent eruption and one to ring the bell. Note that it might be possible for a magus to design a single effect that both detects an eruption and rings a bell to convey this information, as a cosmetic effect. That is not the approach taken here.
The Vibration of Anticipation
InAu 19
Pen: 0, Constant Duration Effect. R: Personal, D: Constant, T: Touch
This effect gives the bell the magical sense to detect the imminent eruption.
(Base 4, +2 Sun, +1 Touch, requisite free; +4 levels Constant effect)
Required Lab Total to invest effect: One Season (38), Two Seasons (29), Three Seasons (26), Four Seasons (24).
Clarion Call
ReTe 17
Pen: 0, unlimited uses
R: Personal, D: Momentary, T: Individual
This effect rings the bell. The frequency of the ringing increases as the eruption time nears, and in the final hours the bell urgently rings every few seconds.
(Base 2, +2 effect metal; +10 unlimited uses, +3 linked trigger)
Required Lab Total to invest effect: One Season (34), Two Seasons (26), Three Seasons (23), Four Seasons (22).